


The Queen Cursed by the Moon

by LuluCalliope



Series: Pan's Labyrinth/A Hat in Time [1]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game), El Laberinto del Fauno | Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Genre: And the events of Pan's Labyrinth are set in motion, Backstory, Bittersweet Ending, Child Death, Crossover, Dark, Dark Past, F/M, Gift Fic, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Going to Hell, Magical Pregnancy, Meaning that Hat Kid becomes the light in Snatcher's life, Minor Prince/Queen Vanessa, Moon Jumper tries to be helpful but he really isn't, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 03:03:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20650154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuluCalliope/pseuds/LuluCalliope
Summary: A strange crossover story inspired by "Pan's Labyrinth" that explores the backstory of Queen Vanessa and the Moon Jumper, and asks the question: why was there a nursery in Queen Vanessa's manor?Birthday gift for a fan of "A Hat in Time" who has never seen "Pan's Labyrinth". I hope this manages to entertain her, even if the story is a little dark and sad.





	The Queen Cursed by the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Acie!
> 
> Everyone, go check out this girl's work here, she is amazeballs and wonderful! https://www.quotev.com/AcieTheLoneWriter2

The Queen Cursed by the Moon

Once upon a time, when the world was still held together by magic and wonder, there lived a beautiful queen named Vanessa. Vanessa adored her betrothed, a young and intelligent prince. And although the prince loved Vanessa, he also valued his education. When the time came to return to his university, he went to Vanessa’s manor in the middle of a romantic forest and told her, “I’ll write to you whenever I have time to spare. Have a room built inside of our secret home, a sideroom that connects to our bedroom. Fill it with toys and a crib. When I return, we can start a family together.” The queen was overjoyed by his words and promised that she would wait for him and always be loyal.

Vanessa kept herself busy for one month as she helped her most trusted servants build the nursery. When they had finished, she had the finest toys from around the world brought to her palace. Every night, she would smuggle them out to the secret manor so that no one would find out about her private place to spend with her prince or about the plans for a baby.

But one night, as the queen rested in her manor, she heard a knock at the door. When she answered, she was greeted by a most peculiar man. He bowed before Vanessa and said, “My lord and master, the king of the Underground, needs an heir. His only daughter ran away, and she has not been seen for over three hundred years. You have been chosen to be the mother of his child, for children cannot be born in the Underground.”

“Tell your lord and master to find another woman,” Vanessa replied. “I am promised to the love of my life, my sweet prince, and I am eternally devoted to him and him alone.”

“The nature of the Underground Kingdom is not the same as that of this world,” the man replied. “The king won’t have to touch you for you to carry the child. All heirs to the Underground Kingdom are not born from human wombs; they are the children of the moon.” He produced from his cloak a small vial of a shimmering blue liquid. “This is a drop of a moonbeam combined with a hair from the king’s head. Drink it, and you will see. Your body will not take long to deliver a child; all you need is your essence, and that cannot be taken from you.”

Vanessa was alarmed by the man’s forwardness, his strange attire, and his face, which was shaped like a part of the crescent moon. Overcome with anger and exhaustion from her trip to the manor, she dismissed the man and ordered him not to return or to reveal her manor to anyone. But after she had fallen asleep in her bedroom, the mysterious visitor slipped into the manor and poured the contents of his vial into the queen’s water pitcher. And when Vanessa’s belly appeared swollen three days later, she knew what had happened.

Enraged and ashamed, she fled from her palace to her manor. Four more days passed, and then, alone in her room, the queen delivered a baby boy. The child was healthy, but on his left shoulder, he carried a birthmark: a sickle moon surrounded by three stars. The mark reminded his mother that she had been tricked and that she had unknowingly and unwillingly betrayed her darling prince. So she hated the child, and every time she looked at him, her hatred grew stronger.

She had heard tales of a Child Eater who hunted for victims within the deepest forests of the earth. Some villagers named him _ Pálido _, or the Pale Man, for he was never seen during the day, and those who had seen glimpses of him at night had told of his white skin, untouched by the sun. The Pale Man was an expert in cruelty and hunting, and no child had ever escaped his grasp. And with this in mind, Vanessa wrapped her infant son in a blanket and walked with him deep into the forest, far beyond her manor, to a part of the earth so isolated that the trees had forgotten what humans looked like. But it was here that the queen found what she was looking for: a small door, one of many that the Pale Man used to travel from his home to the forests of the world. Vanessa opened the door and placed the baby onto the blood-stained floor of the corridor. She closed the door and listened from the other side as the child cried for his mother. She could hear the Pale Man scream with joy, and then she heard his footsteps as he ran. There were horrible crunching and slurping sounds, and then the child never cried again.

* * *

The king of the Underground had hired a puppeteer to entertain his court. The man was skilled in the art of storytelling, but he was a failure in all other aspects. But still, he stayed close to the court, and this was how he came to hear a conversation between the king and the royal adviser, a mysterious Faun. The Faun told the king that his daughter, the long-lost princess of the Underground Kingdom, had been reincarnated, but the reincarnation had failed to return to her home. “How often can my daughter be reincarnated?” The king asked. “When will she be reborn again?”

“Your daughter was born from the moon,” the Faun replied. “As long as the essence of the royal family lasts among the mortals, your daughter will reincarnate and try to return to you. But it could take years before she is strong enough to take another form; we must be patient.” The foolish puppeteer saw an opportunity and came up with a plan. He stole a vial containing a moonbeam from the Faun’s workshop and took it, along with a single hair from the king’s head, to the land of the living. When he saw that Queen Vanessa was expecting a child, he informed the king and the Faun of what he had done. “I can do this as many times as necessary,” he explained. “But only once should be enough. Once the child is old enough, I can bring her back home. The waiting can finally end!”

The stupid man thought that he was to be rewarded for his creativity and initiative, so he was frightened when the king and Faun looked at him with fury in their eyes. “You idiot!” The Faun growled. “These affairs are not to be meddled with! The reincarnation of a runaway soul is something that cannot be forced! The soul of our princess must find the strength to take form on its own, and then she must prove her worth in order to come home!”

“Queen Vanessa will not give birth to my daughter,” the king said to the trembling puppeteer. “She will deliver a child with the essence of the moon, the mortals, and the Underground royals. Souls like that are doomed to forever wander in search of a home!” The puppeteer pleaded for forgiveness, but the king ordered him to leave the Underground Kingdom and never return. The Faun accompanied the disgraced performer to the surface, and left him outside of the lonely manor where Vanessa was hidden.

* * *

When Vanessa returned to her manor, she found the puppeteer outside, waiting for her. He looked at her as she approached, and then asked, “Where is the child?”

The queen, without conveying any emotions, invited him inside to see the baby. She led her disgraced guest into her wine cellar. When the fool was distracted, she knocked him unconscious with a bottle and chained him to a wall. When he opened his eyes hours later, she was standing in front of him, a scornful smile upon her face. “The essence is all that’s important, so it doesn’t matter that your body is chained to this wall, right?” She mocked. With a bitter laugh, she taunted, “Your body can stay here and your essence can go moon jumping for all I care!” She left him alone, and his body withered and crumbled away until it was nothing but dust.

* * *

A few months later, Vanessa’s prince returned to the manor and examined the completed nursery. He never found out about the baby that slept in that room. And by the time he realized that all of the love and trust in the queen’s heart was gone, it was too late for him to save himself. His body was soon chained in the cellar and left to rot, and Vanessa isolated herself in the manor, letting the world around become as cold as her heart.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Vanessa, the essence of her two victims did survive.

As the puppeteer died, he remembered that he couldn’t return to the Underground Kingdom, and he felt as if he had no place among the mortals. In his last moments of consciousness, he asked the moon to give him a place to stay, a place where he could be at peace. When he opened his eyes, he found that he could live by the light of the moon, but never wander far from it. The evening horizon became a prison, and all he could do was spend his time jumping over the moon and watching the mortals.

The prince’s consciousness fled to his shadow, and took on a new identity, known as the Snatcher. The Snatcher took up residence not far from Vanessa’s manor, and between the two of them, the mortals learned to stay far away from the forest. Those who were dumb enough to trespass in his home became his eternal servants.

* * *

Many years later, a spunky little girl wearing a Top Hat journeyed into Snatcher’s home in search of objects called “Time Pieces”. She didn’t know it, but in time, he would come to view her as the daughter that he never had.

* * *

Around that time, on another part of the world, a young girl noticed that a statue was missing an eye. When she repaired the statue, a Faun in the Underground Kingdom raised his head and smiled. “Finally!” He whispered. And with that, he sent one of his fairies to find the reincarnation of the missing princess.

**Author's Note:**

> Acie, we talked about why there would be a nursery in the manor. I don't think that this really happened, but wouldn't it be crazy if it had? I know (I hope!) that the tone of this story was "dark in a beautiful way", which is the way "Pan's Labyrinth" is.
> 
> ATTENTION AHIT FANS! If you haven't seen "Pan's Labyrinth", aka the best movie of all time, go do that right now. And after you watch it, go pick up the book that was written as a companion piece to the film! Do it. Right now. Go. Why are you here? Oh, are you leaving a review for me? Oh, thank you, that's so sweet!
> 
> Happy birthday Acie! You're a bright, creative, and funny fifteen-year-old! You remind me so much of myself when I was young, and I'm so proud of all that you've done so far, and I'm thrilled to see what the future has in store for you! I know that you'll accomplish great things. I love you, my Internet daughter!


End file.
